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With humanitarian aid flowing into southern Kyrgyzstan after days of ethnic violence, the long-running tensions between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks appears to be abating, reports the New York Times. A spokesman for the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights, Rupert Colville, said the attacks, which left at least 100 dead and 100,000 or more Uzbeks as refugees, were "orchestrated, targeted and well planned," and not a spontaneous outbreak of ethnic violence. Deposed president Kurmanbek S. Bakiyev is the assumed culprit among Uzbeks, less for direct evidence than for having the motive and ability to manipulate the region's ethnic tensions. Ravshanoi Karimova, 37, an Uzbek who is a chef, said Uzbeks would continue to dread more violence if Bakiyev continued to cast a shadow. Bakiyev fled this region in April, taking up exile in Belarus. His opponents, though, have feared that he was not finished here, given his family's business interests and long hold on power in the south of this nation. The provisional government has maintained that he has used his relatives in southern Kyrgyzstan to foment instability.

Kyrgyz violence showing signs of subsiding: NYT